Another race, another less than inspiring performance.
Giuseppe and I set off for Newburg a little after seven. A brief stop at the neighborhood Bread Co. was on the agenda before setting off on the wonderful and sometimes bizarre trip along I-44. The sights along the highway always provide amusement. There is the Branson tourist info center located 200 miles away from Branson, the collection of old gasoline station signs that I guess are for sale, the Jesse James Museum next door to the Antique Toy museum, the giant farmer "sign" with the rotating arms, the flying moose, the big chicken in the back of the red pickup. Lots of good stuff. There even is the lovely Trooper Shanika that pulled Giuseppe over for being a little aggressive with gas pedal.
Aside from the unfortante meeting the MO Hwy Patrol, it was a spectacular day for racing. The races started a little behind schedule and we off and riding 25 minutes late. The neutral start was more brisk than I expected and the small ring was proving to be a spin-fest. Seeing myself slide backwards, I figured it would be wise to shift to a bigger gear until we reached the hill. Patience was important and eventually a lane opened up and I moved up to the top 5 or 6 riders. At least, I felt I contributed in some small way in this race. I chased a small early break attempt and took a few pulls at the front. An attack by a Mesa rider shuffled me back through the pack and meant I was going to have to work my way through the pack again at some point.
We rolled through the river valley and approached the more important of the two hills on the course. We seemed to come at the hill a little slowly. At that point, I should have tried to be more aggressive in squeezing my way forward in the pack. As it was I started near the back. I am not sure it would have made a difference but if I had room to slide through the pack, maybe I would have been in better position at the top. There is no getting around the fact, however, that I climbed the hill like a snail. I have no explanation for that other than the steeper a hill gets, the more I seem to struggle. And, this is a rather steep hill.
At the top I was gapped pretty well. I caught a Momentum rider and Jose hooked on as well and the chase began. Jose dropped off and we then reeled in Jeff Yielding while Vinnie was up ahead, then Marco and unknown rider and then the pack. Vinnie fell into our clutches and the four of us worked hard. We all seemed to think catching back on was still possible. Marco managed to integrate into the small caravan of cars and then into the pack. If we could reach the cars just ahead we would likely make the junction too.
We came fairly close but then all hope went away when a truck with a trailer in the line of vehicles decided to brake and back into his driveway. What the @#$%!!! We all virtually stopped and squeezed through tiny portion of road on the right, hoping that he saw us and didn't start backing up. With his wheel turned the truck likely would have swung right and taken up what little road we had. We made it through safely but the delay essentially put paid to our hopes. We kept up the efforts. Our Momentum rider began dangling off the back of our rotation. Then Vinnie blew up and the Momentum guy managed to get back into the rotation. Then Jeff popped. Momentum and I continued the futile chase. It was a good workout but we called it a day after one lap.
Congrats to Kyle Rackers for the big win.
Make every e-mail and IM count. Join the i'm Initiative from Microsoft.
Giuseppe and I set off for Newburg a little after seven. A brief stop at the neighborhood Bread Co. was on the agenda before setting off on the wonderful and sometimes bizarre trip along I-44. The sights along the highway always provide amusement. There is the Branson tourist info center located 200 miles away from Branson, the collection of old gasoline station signs that I guess are for sale, the Jesse James Museum next door to the Antique Toy museum, the giant farmer "sign" with the rotating arms, the flying moose, the big chicken in the back of the red pickup. Lots of good stuff. There even is the lovely Trooper Shanika that pulled Giuseppe over for being a little aggressive with gas pedal.
Aside from the unfortante meeting the MO Hwy Patrol, it was a spectacular day for racing. The races started a little behind schedule and we off and riding 25 minutes late. The neutral start was more brisk than I expected and the small ring was proving to be a spin-fest. Seeing myself slide backwards, I figured it would be wise to shift to a bigger gear until we reached the hill. Patience was important and eventually a lane opened up and I moved up to the top 5 or 6 riders. At least, I felt I contributed in some small way in this race. I chased a small early break attempt and took a few pulls at the front. An attack by a Mesa rider shuffled me back through the pack and meant I was going to have to work my way through the pack again at some point.
We rolled through the river valley and approached the more important of the two hills on the course. We seemed to come at the hill a little slowly. At that point, I should have tried to be more aggressive in squeezing my way forward in the pack. As it was I started near the back. I am not sure it would have made a difference but if I had room to slide through the pack, maybe I would have been in better position at the top. There is no getting around the fact, however, that I climbed the hill like a snail. I have no explanation for that other than the steeper a hill gets, the more I seem to struggle. And, this is a rather steep hill.
At the top I was gapped pretty well. I caught a Momentum rider and Jose hooked on as well and the chase began. Jose dropped off and we then reeled in Jeff Yielding while Vinnie was up ahead, then Marco and unknown rider and then the pack. Vinnie fell into our clutches and the four of us worked hard. We all seemed to think catching back on was still possible. Marco managed to integrate into the small caravan of cars and then into the pack. If we could reach the cars just ahead we would likely make the junction too.
We came fairly close but then all hope went away when a truck with a trailer in the line of vehicles decided to brake and back into his driveway. What the @#$%!!! We all virtually stopped and squeezed through tiny portion of road on the right, hoping that he saw us and didn't start backing up. With his wheel turned the truck likely would have swung right and taken up what little road we had. We made it through safely but the delay essentially put paid to our hopes. We kept up the efforts. Our Momentum rider began dangling off the back of our rotation. Then Vinnie blew up and the Momentum guy managed to get back into the rotation. Then Jeff popped. Momentum and I continued the futile chase. It was a good workout but we called it a day after one lap.
Congrats to Kyle Rackers for the big win.
Make every e-mail and IM count. Join the i'm Initiative from Microsoft.
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